Lessons Learned from Leader a 120-Year-Old Manufacturing Company into the Circular Economy

About the Session

• Importance of looking holistically across the company’s goals and throughout the value chain to inform your strategy.
• Creating connections between existing strategies to enable the organization to make the mental shift to a new approach.
• Importance of collaboration within and outside of the organization; leveraging external partnerships, involving customers, and overcoming departmental silos to achieve momentum.

Speaker

Sophie Beckham
Chief Sustainability Officer
International Paper

Sophie Beckham is chief sustainability officer at International Paper, where she leads the development and execution of the company’s sustainability strategy and tactics to advance the International Paper vision of being among the most successful, sustainable and responsible companies in the world.

Prior to joining International Paper, Ms. Beckham applied her training as a forester to work in domestic and foreign contexts, holding positions with forest management organizations and home furnishings retailers. Sophie’s interest in the transformation of materials into products that people use every day stems from a lifetime spent exploring the ways in which people rely on natural resources, and in turn, the impact our decisions have on people and planet. Early formative experiences on trails, in tents, and in forests and foreign countries, contributed to a professional journey that has been dedicated to advancing sustainable business practices in consumer goods and manufacturing sectors for the past 18 years.

She holds a Master of Forestry degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.